“Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I heard a commentary the other day reflecting on the number of adults who are going to summer camp. They aren’t going to summer camp as chaperons for their children’s summer camp. They are going to their own summer camp. Adults – and especially women – in their 20s and early 30s are increasingly looking for week long summer camps they can attend like perhaps they did when they were kids. And while they are doing it for reasons of nostalgia, they are doing it even more for reasons of loneliness. They don’t have many – or any – friends in real life, and they are so online that they struggle making them. So they go to camp in hopes of building the kind of life-giving relationships they are hungering for. What they really need, though, is not a summer camp experience; they need the church. They need the church where they can find real community and build genuine relationships; where they will find people who will follow Paul’s next command here with them. As we continue our walk through some of the basics of kingdom ethics, let’s talk about the power of real community.

One of the defining features of the church is community. That’s not the only feature, and it’s arguably not the most important feature (that distinction belongs to bringing glory to God by proclaiming the Gospel and advancing His kingdom), but it’s a pretty significant feature all the same. People are drawn to community. When we can’t find them naturally, we create them artificially. When word leaks out about genuine community being experienced somewhere, people will show up for that.

Wednesday nights at my church are a perfect example of this. Every single week at what we call The Gathering Place, we gather together to share a meal and time of fellowship without any other agenda. And people come. Nearly as many come for that as come on a Sunday morning. There aren’t really any thrills to it. It’s just dinner and fellowship. But people are hungry for that. They’re hungry for that in every age bracket, all of which are well- represented there. You just can’t find something like The Gathering Place outside of the church.

One of the reasons church community is so significant is because it is where people do more than merely sit and visit. They share life together. They become invested in the lives of one another. They share in each other’s joys and sorrows, putting into practice Paul’s next command here. “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.”

When have a significant experience of some kind, our first thought is generally about who we can share it with. Even if that sharing is not in the moment, we want to tell someone else about our experience. More than that, we want to tell them and have them respond by getting invested in the story. This happens most often and most easily with the people we love. They care about us and because of that they reflect our emotions in our storytelling, and we do the same for them.

Paul says this kind of thing should be normal in the church where we are surrounded by people who love us and who we love in return. When our brothers and sisters in the church are rejoicing, we should rejoice with them. We should share in their joy and excitement. We should exult together with them in the good they have experienced.

Oftentimes our natural reaction to the people around us experiencing something good is to be envious of their good news. We want what they got, and we secretly hate them for having gotten it instead of us. This kind of thing, while natural, is poisonous to relationships and community. You can’t be rightly related someone in a close and loving relationship and also envious of them. Paul’s command to rejoice with those who rejoice is an envy-destroying practice. You can’t be envious of someone and genuinely celebrating their successes with them at the same time. You can lie to them, but then you won’t be rightly related, and you won’t experience the kind of community you need. The only way to do that is to truly rejoice with those who rejoice.

On the other side of things, Paul also commands us to weep with those who weep. Going through hard times of some kind is bad enough all by itself. That journey is made all the more difficult when we have to take it alone. Misery may love company, but it is often an intensely isolating experience. Rather than sharing our hurts with others, we are often taught to bury them and keep them to ourselves and process through them on our own. And while we can perhaps navigate a journey of grief like that or soldier through a hard medical season or struggle along when finances are unexpectedly difficult on our own, it’s going to take a lot longer and be a lot more painful that way.

As much as we desire others to be a part of those kinds of journeys when we take them, we need to actively look to be a part of those journeys for others when they are on them. In the church, when someone is hurting, the community comes around that person to pray for them and support them in other practical ways. We do that for them, they do that for us, and we are all made stronger for it.

Life is easier with community. The church remains one of the best places to find and experience real community in this world. And as more and more people long for community, taking all manner of steps to be able to get a taste of it, we who are in the church need to take the hint and begin actively sharing what God has given us. If you know someone who is lonely, invite them to church. If you know someone who is struggling, invite them to church. If you know someone who is hurting, invite them to church. If you know someone who has just experienced incredible news, invite them to church. Whatever season of life we happen to be in, the church is the best place to thrive through it, surrounded by others who love us and will support us along the way. You need the church.